All that glitters........well it's probably gold.

Hello to all,

and a belated happy New Year. Although it's actually not New Year here for a couple of weeks at a time known as Tet. Over the Tet holidays we are going to Cambodia for a week. I've just been out walking the dog and everything seemed strangely familiar. It's 12 degrees, leaden grey sky, gusty wind and pissing with rain. And the locals are not happy with this 'English' weather ha ha. I have a few dog walking routes here. Today, my route took me past a locals 'cock fight' pictured here (sorry I couldn't get too close 'cos of the dog.....obviously.), then through one of the local graveyards (pictured, and there are so many local customs here including digging the bones up to clean them after a few years) and finally pictured is 'Quat Tree City'. These are grown in abundance for Tet and every household gets one (including us !).

I had a fairly surreal trip in a taxi the other day. It is of course compulsary for taxi drivers here to be using their mobiles whilst driving. It's probably part of the driving test and I  reckon that if they passed a law here forbidding the use of mobiles whilst driving, then the phone companies would go bust. But this driver was engaged in two separate conversations on two different phones. I was thinking of offering to hold the steering wheel for him.

And so to gold. We have read that personal ownership of hoarded gold in Vietnam is the highest of any country in the world. And by a considerable margin. Combined with Vietnam's low Government Reserves, this has led to an initiative to try to persuade people to take and deposit their gold with the State Bank of Vietnam. A Certificate will be issued to prove ownership, and in turn the Government can use the increased gold reserves as collateral to raise money on the International Markets. Just a fascinating situation.

Yesterday we did a City Walk run by the Friends of Vietnam Heritage. Usually I avoid these as they take you from temple to pagoda to temple to pagoda. But this one concentrated on the traditional 36 streets of the Old Quarter and market areas showing all kinds of food being prepared, took us up 'ordinary' alleyways and pointed out some fascinating stuff about day to day life here. A couple of photos from yesterday show the only surviving gate to the city (from the original 16 gates), and then a war mural celebrating the struggle against the French in the late Forties and early Fifties. There are a number of these around the city.

My wife Karen is really struggling with the air quality here in Hanoi which gives her a constant cough. Most expats here monitor a website called www.aqicn.org . This shows air quality in cities around the world. Hanoi sticks stubbornly in the Red ( Unhealthy) or the Purple (Very Unhealthy)

 

 

No apologies for another Dog story. The only other Expat on our street was manipulated into paying 1000 USD to get her dog back the other day having 'lost' him. There seemed to be no concept of returning the dog as a favour to a neighbour, and 1000 USD goes a long way here. A salutory lesson.

And finally.........we watched in horror as a cement mixer truck failed to turn into a street going forwards (because of the wires across the street entrance) , and in a fit of local logic the driver then reckoned that he could successfully manage the manoevre by going backwards. Why is that going to work? But it seemed to amuse all the passers by.

Till next time everybody

Very best

Kevin